Jury in murder case asked to decide who pulled trigger: Man on trial or teen left a paraplegic
Kyrone Haygood and his boyhood friend Jaleen Hinton were looking to score some marijuana when the ill-fated drug deal turned violent, with Hinton getting shot and Haygood accused of murder.
A trial in Fresno County Superior Court began Wednesday for Haygood, 20, who is accused of shooting and killing Wenshil “Brandon” Saechao on Aug. 24, 2018 in what prosecutors said was a deliberate plan to use counterfeit bills to steal marijuana from Saechao.
During the opening day of Haygood’s trial, prosecutor Elana Smith said the dope deal fell apart as they gathered at Saechao’s Fresno home on Fountain Way west of Highway 99. Joining Saechao in his garage that night was Haygood, Hinton and brothers Derick Trujillo and Phillip Reyes, a friend of Saechao who set up the deal.
As the deal was being discussed, a dispute broke out. Saechao realized some of the cash Haygood and Hinton had given him was phony, said prosecutor Smith.
“At that point Hinton grabs the marijuana from Brandon Saechao, saying, ‘I’m sorry, we’ll have to take that,’” Smith said. “Then Kyrone Haygood pulls out a gun and starts firing.”
Smith and detectives allege Haygood shot Saechao, killing him, and accidentally shot Hinton as he was trying to run away. The injury to Hinton, who was 17 at the time, left him a paraplegic.
Defense version
Haygood’s defense attorney Amanda Moran provided a different version of events to the jury. She said during her opening statements that Haygood didn’t kill anybody. She admits their plan was to buy marijuana, but said it was Saechao and Hinton who shot each other.
Moran said Haygood had gone to his car to get his part of the money for the dope. As he was walking back, he saw Hinton and Saechao fighting. Then he noticed that Saechao had a gun. Haygood heard gun shots so he crouched between two cars in the driveway.
Moran continued: Once the shooting stopped, Haygood saw that Hinton had been hit. He was coughing up blood and couldn’t move. Haygood signaled to the others to help him get Hinton into the car and they drove him to a hospital.
Moran said Hinton told detectives several times that Saechao shot him. But Moran alleges the detectives zeroed in on Haygood from the beginning and dismissed the theory that Saechao shot Hinton.
“They didn’t even test to see if Brandon Saechao had gun shot residue on his clothes,” she said. “They swabbed his hands but they didn’t test it.”
Witnesses were high
The two brothers, Trujillo and Reyes, testified Wednesday, but neither offered any concrete proof that Haygood was the shooter. Both said they had trouble remembering what happened that night, partly because they were high on Xanax and marijuana.
Trujillo said he thinks either Hinton or Haygood pointed a gun at Saechao, but he’s not sure which one. He also said the drugs make his memory fuzzy.
When prosecutor Smith asked Trujillo what happens when he takes Xanax, he said: “I just chill and can’t remember anything the next day.”
Hinton, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, was also charged with murder but a Fresno County Superior Court judge ruled in April he will be tried as a juvenile. Hinton, who was represented by attorney Gerald Schwab, would have faced a possible life term in prison if found guilty. As a juvenile, a guilty verdict will mean being housed in a juvenile facility until the age of 25.
